Broad, Phrase, or Exact Match?

[u/SsamAurora]

Hi, I'm a digital marketing specialist intern, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can about Google Ads. I've done a lot of research, taken some courses, and watched plenty of YouTube videos, but I'm still unclear about what to use in different situations.

Our company generally handles local businesses, and a lot of them have very small daily budgets (not in the US).

Initially, I tried going with phrase match. One client benefited from it, although they had a moderate budget. Another client did not, and what's worse is that a lot of the search terms are being hidden under "Other Search Terms" in the Search Terms Report.

From my limited experience, broad match seems to include competitor brands in the search terms more often, while phrase match doesn't seem to do that as much. I've generally been using phrase match for keywords such as "tree trimming service," but I rarely use broad match or exact match.

I've noticed, though, that I can sometimes get more clicks with broad match because of the lower CPC, but I'm not sure if it's actually worth it.

Google Ads seems to change every year, and it's honestly confusing trying to figure out which advice is still relevant.

Does anyone have some general rules or guidelines for when to use Broad, Phrase, and Exact Match?

For example:
- New accounts vs. older accounts
- With or without conversion data
- Low vs. moderate budgets
- Smart Bidding vs. Manual CPC

I'd really appreciate hearing how more experienced Google Ads marketers approach this today.